Britain mistakenly puts Russian central bank on sanctions list

The sanctions were placed on a bank 'privately owned by elite Russian billionaires with direct links to Putin'

LONDON:

Britain on Tuesday mistakenly assigned the address of the Russian central bank to a privately held bank with close links to Russian President Vladimir Putin that was the target of sanctions announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Johnson slapped sanctions on five private banks including Bank Rossiya, which the government said was "privately owned by elite Russian billionaires with direct links to Putin", but spared Russia's largest state banks for now.

The government mistakenly listed Bank Rossiya's address as "Neglinnaya, 12, Moscow, 107016, Russia" which is the address of Russia's central bank, known in Russian as "Bank Rossiya."

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The private Bank Rossiya is based in the northern Russian city of St Petersburg. Neglinnaya Street in Moscow has been home to a Russian or Soviet central bank office for at least a century.

There is no suggestion that the Russian central bank was sanctioned by Britain.

Britain's foreign ministry did not reply to a request for comment on the mix-up. The Russian central bank in Moscow did not reply to a Reuters request for comment.

A source close to the Russian central bank said their understanding was that it was a mistake and that it had had no impact on the bank’s operations.